Ask most people to define “writing,” and they’ll tell you it’s the process of putting words down on paper, communicating what you already know. In reality, writing is often how you discover what you don’t know—and so how you learn to think better.
Author: Steve Sampson
Writer, husband, father, drummer, and would-be wise old wizard--not necessarily in that order. Founder of Better Word Partners LLC.
When In Doubt, Sing Out
I learned a crucial lesson about kindness and compassion while Christmas caroling in a nursing home in 1983.
Will AI Break the Spell of TV?
The implicit promise of TV has always been something like this: I will show you the world beyond. My screen will function as a window onto distant events and places. AI-generated video obliterates this promise--and could change how we think about the scenes on our screens.
Write It Down
The things you write down, using your own words, begin to become the meaning you create for yourself, if for no other reason than because you wrote them down. And creating meaning is not a task any of us can afford to outsource.
How Do You Stay Hopeful?
The philosopher Ernst Bloch argued that hope is woven into the fabric of reality. Here’s a brief look at his big ideas, plus prompts to get you thinking and writing (hopefully).
I Used to Be ChatGPT
In the early 2000s, my job was to find and share answers to hard questions fast. Here’s what that experience taught me about how humans know, why we need to keep thinking together, and when we’re better than any artificial intelligence.
Why ChatGPT Cheats at Chess—And Why that May Be Super Important for the Future of AI
Turns out being long on language but short on world models could be a big problem.
The Freedom to Speak: An Interview with John Stuart Mill
Nearly 20 years ago, I tackled one of democracy's hardest questions by "interviewing" John Stuart Mill. Here's what he told me about free speech.
Our Era Is Not “Post-Truth,” It’s “Loyalty-First”
In the history of truth, questions of loyalty came before questions of accuracy. In our current cultural moment, questions of loyalty seem to be ascending again, with some potentially dire consequences.
What They Hear Matters More Than What You Say
Unless you’re writing purely for self-expressive purposes, your reader’s interpretation of what you’re saying matters more than your own.
